Theater owners had a message for moviegoers last year: Show me more money.

The average cost of a movie ticket in the U.S. crossed the $8 mark for the first time last year, according to the National Association of Theatre Owners.

Moviegoers paid an average of $8.13 a ticket in 2013, the organization announced today. That’s an increase from the previous year’s average of $7.96.

The ticket prices ticked upward toward the end of the year — three months that ended with an exceptionally crowded holiday movie season. Ticket prices in the fourth quarter averaged $8.35, up from $8.05 in the final three months of 2012.

NATO tracks average ticket prices back to 1948, when it cost an average of 36 cents to see movies like “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.” Average prices crossed the $1 mark in the mid-1960s, and took about 30 years to hit $5 in 1999, the year “American Beauty” was named best picture at the Academy Awards.

The 17-cent hike in 2013 was fairly typical for recent years.

NATO registered only a 3-cent uptick from 2011 to 2012, the smallest annual increase since 2000. But this year’s rise is still far below the one seen from 2009 to 2010, when the expansion of more expensive options like 3-D screenings helped send the average price from $7.50 to $7.89.

The latest rise is particularly notable given the decrease in popularity of more expensive options like 3-D, which still does well with effects-laden features like “Gravity” but has seen sharp declines in genres like animated movies.